


50 Strands of Grey

by LadySage



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Alcohol, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 07:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3438650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySage/pseuds/LadySage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kotetsu has always considered himself a low maintenance guy, unlike Barnaby. But as the universe seems determined to remind him of the aging process, that may change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	50 Strands of Grey

Kotetsu enjoyed teasing Barnaby for his vanity. The curlers and biweekly appointments at the hairstylist’s; the face masks and expensive moisturizers; the designer clothes and custom-ordered hexagonal glasses lenses; the regular trips to the waxer. He always said that it was lucky he was wealthy, because otherwise he’d beautify himself into the poorhouse. Barnaby’s stock response was, without looking up, to raise an eyebrow and remind Kotetsu that he was 30 years old without a single line on his face and still looked great in high definition. Kotetsu used to tease him about how white people aged so poorly, until a Blue Rose burst into tears on her twenty-first birthday. Fire Emblem threatened to scorch him if he ever brought it up again.

On the other hand, Kotetsu considered himself a pretty low-maintenance guy: styling his hair in the morning, shaving every three days, and that was it. That was what he told everyone, and also the reason why he kept the eyebrow pencils he used to fill in his beard hidden, and threw the home waxing kits he used on his chest and shoulders into a dumpster a block away. That wasn’t really vanity, he told himself, just taking care of himself.

One morning changed all of that.

It happened when Kotetsu was styling his hair as usual, carefully slicking the right side back. He pulled his hand away, and stared into his worst nightmare: there, on his hand, sticky with pomade, was a single, horrifyingly grey hair.

He flew into a panic, examining his scalp inch by inch for its brethren. He found another one, two, three, four… It didn’t take long for him to realize there were too many to count. How had he not noticed?

A knock at the door. “Kotetsu?” Barnaby’s voice came through the wood. “Is everything okay?”

Kotetsu froze, afraid to say anything. The door creaked open, and his towel slipped from his hips as he scrambled backward.

“Why are you freaking out? It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” Barnaby sighed as Kotetsu grabbed at his towel in a panic. “Are you seriously still doing your hair? Hurry up, you’re supposed to come to Apollon to help train the new recruits, remember?”

“Sorry! Bad hair day! I’ll be right out.”

“Just wear your hat,” Barnaby said. “Now, hurry or I’ll leave without you.” He punctuated his statement by shutting the door with a decisive click.

Kotetsu made a face at the closed door, crossing his eyes and baring his teeth. “I haven’t worn that hat in years,” he grumbled to his reflection, but as he studied his reflection, he reconsidered – it would cover up some of the grey, or at least make it less noticeable. He nodded to himself in the mirror and walked out, feeling ready to face the world.

\---

It was the first time in a couple years he’d been to Apollon Media, and Kotetsu was relieved to see the lobby was almost identical to how it was when he retired. The décor, the security, the attractive but bored-looking receptionist sitting at the desk, all had the same generic sterility as every office building. He used to hate it, used to think the interior should have some indication of the nature of the work performed within, but now it was comforting in its familiarity. Maybe I really am getting old…

He pictured himself walking into the room of heroes still working: Fire Emblem, Blue Rose, Dragon Kid, Origami Cyclone, and Sky High. He’d casually walk in, without saying anything, but it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed him. “Kotetsu!” one of them would shout, and they’d all run to greet him. They’d ask him how he was doing, and tell him how things just hadn’t been since he’d retired. It would be a true hero’s welcome.

“I have to go do some paperwork. You remember how to get to the gym, right?” Barnaby’s voice cut into his reverie, dragging him back to reality as they stepped into the elevator.

“Of course! I worked here for twenty years. I could navigate this place in my sleep!”

“Yes, yes, you were a hero when I was barely in elementary school. You used your Hundred Power to build this place from the ground up, right after you helped build the pyramids in Egypt. Can I go now? My stack of paperwork is four inches thick and this is my floor.”

“I’m not that old!” Kotetsu argued. Normally he didn’t care too much about jokes about his age, but after this morning’s discovery, Barnaby’s remarks rankled.

“Bye now. Give me a call if you need me.” Barnaby stepped off the elevator with a dismissive hand wave.

“Bye, Bunny-chan!” Barnaby’s shoulders tensed slightly in irritation, gratifying Kotetsu.

The weight room was deserted when Kotetsu reached his floor. He sagged in disappointment. Okay, maybe his daydream was unrealistic, but it would have been nice to have someone there to greet him, instead of silence. Maybe someone is in the locker room, he thought. Wait, maybe that’s not the first place I want to run into someone.

It didn’t really matter, anyway. The locker room, like the weight room, was completely empty.

He trudged into the dance room, and couldn’t stop himself from checking his head in the mirrored wall. Yep, there were still several dozen gray hairs. There were even some in his bangs, where everyone would see them if they looked him in the face. He tried slicking them back, but that just looked strange. Frustrated, he started to make faces at the mirror: sticking out his lower jaw, rolling his eyes, pushing up his nose.

“Ah… excuse me?”

He whipped around, and there, previously unnoticed, stood two people, a young man, tall with broad shoulders and a square jaw, and a petite young woman with dark eyes and a tiny bit of black hair visible under a headscarf.

“Oh… uh… hi!” Kotetsu said. “You must be the new recruits.” He straightened. "How about you introduce yourselves?"

“Yes,” said the young woman who had spoken before in slightly accented English. “I am Adira. I came from Iran when a scout saw me using my powers and thought they might be useful.”

“I’m Kai,” the young man said. “I’m 23 years old and I graduated top of my class at the Hero Academy!” The force behind his voice sounded like someone trying to establish himself as a macho man, and Kotetsu disliked him instantly.

An awkward pause hung in the air. She began to shift her weight from foot to foot and the young man snickered before asking, “And what’s your name?”

“Oh, right… heh heh…” Kotetsu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. The whole thing this morning had thrown him off, killing the inspirational mood he’d imagined he’d set. He straightened his back, raised his shoulders, and began, “I’m Kotetsu Kaburagi, and I’ll be your physical trainer to make sure you two will be the best heroes you can be.”

“But we already have superpowers!” Adira interrupted. “Shouldn’t we be working to develop those?”

Kotetsu shook his head. “To do your job right, you need to make sure you’re in peak physical condition. Sometimes, your powers won’t be enough. They could fail you. Trust me, I know from experience – when my own powers started to fade, my training was the only thing keeping me alive. Being a hero isn’t about having the strongest powers or the most points. You never know what kind of situation you’ll run into, and you must make sure you are equipped to protect people in as many ways as you can.” He slapped his hands together and smiled. “Okay! How about you two show me what you can do. Adira, you go first.”

She nodded, took a step back, and sprang into the air, flipping over Kotetsu’s head. When he moved to turn around, a gleaming talon pressed up against his throat.

“That’s pretty impressive, all right. …Do you mind letting me go?”

He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath, but when she released him, he found himself gasping for air with his hands on his knees. Adira, meanwhile, bounced back a step, unable to hide an exhilarated smile. “I can turn parts of my body into animal parts. What do you think?” she asked brightly.

“You’re going to be a great addition to the team. The fans are going to love you.” He turned his attention to Kai. “Now, how about you?”

Kai puffed up his chest and said, “I call this ‘Cougar’s Scream’.” He opened his mouth and shrieked.

“Argh!” Kotetsu fell to his knees, pushing his fingers into his ears to try to block out the agonizing noise. Every cell in his body vibrated, threatening to fly apart and disintegrate him. Beside him, Adira curled into a ball, her face pressed into her knees. “That’s enough!”

After too long, the bone-shattering screech ended. Adira peeked out, as if afraid that the noise would start again. Slowly, trembling, both of them rose to their feet.

“That was something, but you should have warned us,” Kotetsu said, trying to keep his voice from wobbling. He could barely hear himself speak over the ringing in his ears. “Doing something like that to your fellow heroes won’t win you any friends.”

Kai shrugged. “I’m not here to make friends.”

_One of those, huh?_ “You say that now, but it’s essential to your survival that you build a bond of trust between yourself and your allies. It could mean the difference between – “

“Yeah, yeah,” Kai said, waving his hand dismissively. “Man, old men talk a lot. You remind me of my grandfather, rambling on about ‘what’s important in life’ and shit like that.”

Kotetsu’s temper crackled, but he fought it down. “Besides, that name really isn’t going to work. We’ve already had two heroes named after wildcats. And with a name like ‘Cougar’, people are really going to get the wrong idea about who you are under the suit. Although I guess pretending to be a middle-aged woman would be a good way of keeping your identity secret.”

Kai pursed his lips in annoyance, but then smirked and slammed his fist into his palm. “Dude, I know where I recognize you from now! You’re that washed-up One Minute Wild Tiger! So this is what you’re doing now that you lost all your powers, huh? Pretty sad that you’re still hanging around here. Shouldn’t you take up fishing or something, Gramps?”

Gramps? The image of the gray hairs clinging to his palm that morning glued itself into his mind, clinging despite his mental efforts to shake it off. “Old man” he could forgive, but “Gramps” was going too far. “Hey! I have a daughter who’s younger than you!”

Kai’s lips twisted into a cocky sneer. “Is she hot?”

At that moment, Kotetsu would have let his whole head turn gray just to have his powers back for one minute. He wanted nothing more to punch this arrogant child in his smug face. But no. He had a job to do, and he would do it. It was his duty to the people of Sternbild to make sure the heroes protecting them were the best they could be.

“For your warm up, you’re going to go up and down the stairs ten times.”

Adira and Kai both groaned but, to Kotetsu’s enormous relief, started with no further complaint. Adira counted her up and down trips and finished fairly quickly, but it didn’t take long for Kai to start panting.

“How… far… am I…? I lost… count…”

Kotetsu shrugged. “Counting is supposed to be your job. Better start over from the beginning.” He didn’t try to stop the vindictive satisfaction that welled up within him.

\---

“How many times did you make that poor kid run up and down those stairs?”

“No clue. I didn’t count,” Kotetsu said, but then muttered into his drink, “I think around twenty-five.”

Half the bar turned to look at the source of Antonio’s bray of laughter. “No wonder he puked all over the locker room!”

“They made him clean it up himself, too.”

“Hey, don’t pick on the kid too bad. They’ll fire you all over again if you let the power go to your head.”

“Someone has to teach him some respect, or that arrogant ass is going to be impossible to work with.”

“I seem to remember you saying the same thing about your precious partner a few years ago. And now that I think of it, you and Tomoe got had a pretty rocky start, and we weren’t exactly best friends either. Maybe people just hate you when they meet you.”

“Maybe he’ll kidnap Bunny to force me to fight him and we’ll turn it into a bonding experience.”

Antonio took a swig from his mug. “I’m sure you’ll find a reason to like the kid, or feel sorry for him, or want to make friends for some reason. You always do.”

“And Barnaby makes the rescue! That’s one hundred points for him!” Hero TV’s announcer brayed from the large-screen TV.

“It’s too bad they got a call and couldn’t meet us here,” Antonio sighed.

“It really is.” Kotetsu’s eyes drifted to the band of paler skin where his friend’s communicator cuff sat until recently, then to his own wrist, where his had long since faded into the tan of the rest of his arm. Then, worried that the pensive silence was going on too long, he laughed and said, “Can you believe I still look down whenever Bunny’s communicator goes off! Even after all this time!”

“Yeah…” Antonio stared at nothing for a few moments.

_I should say something to comfort him. Retirement is tough_ , Kotetsu thought.

Then Antonio slapped him on the back, hard enough to make him spill his drink. “There’s no denying it, we’re getting old! At least we don’t have to worry about getting called in the middle of the night to risk our necks anymore!”

Kotetsu smiled and raised his glass. “Here’s to getting old!”

 

Three drinks later…

“He better stay away from my baby girl! I’ll kill him if he touches her!”

“She’s not a baby anymore though. Soon she’s gonna be a grown-up.”

“No way. NO WAY.”

“They all grow up eventually! Even Dragon Kid is old enough to drink…”

“…Would you go drinking with Dragon Kid?”

“Nah. It’d be too weird.”

“Way too weird.”

 

Two more drinks later…

“Remember that guy I arrested who tried to steal Blue Rose’s stuff?”

“Hahaha, yeah! That was a good one! He looked so ridiculous! Hey, remember when you tried to make me fight you in high school?”

“Man, I was a dumb kid. Just obsessed with being the strongest…”

 

Another drink after that…

“’Ey, Antonio, I’ve got a question for you.”

“Whuh?”

“How…how…” Kotetsu started to sniffle. “How is your hair still so red?” He pulled off his cap and grabbed at his hair. “Lookit all these gray hairs! ‘Snot fair!” he wailed.

The bartender glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I think it’s time for you two to head home. Need a taxi, Kotetsu?”

“Nahhhh,” Antonio said. “We’ll walk.” He leaned over and whispered a little too loudly into Kotetsu’s ear, “I’ve got a plan.”

The bartender raised an eyebrow. “Well, stay safe out there.”

The two stumbled off into the night, with Antonio leading as Kotetsu wondered through his drunken haze where they were headed. After about twenty minutes of weaving along the sidewalk, Antonio stopped. “Here we are!” he announced.

The two of them stood in front of a 24-hour grocery store. Kotetsu winced at the bright lights, then wandered over to the beer aisle. As he perused the various bottles, a triumphant shout came from several aisles away. “’Ey, Kotetsu! I got it!”

Kotetsu staggered after the sound of his voice and found him in the hair care aisle, waving a box of men’s hair dye. “KOOOOTEEEEETSUUUUUU,” he bellowed again.

Kotetsu grabbed the box in his hand. He tried to read it, but the words swam in front of his eyes. Oh well, no matter. “Antonio,” he slurred as he gripped his friends forearms. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a genius, buddy?”

“Not often enough,” Antonio grinned.

\---

“Hokay. Hokay. Let’s do this, buddy.” Kotetsu plopped into the chair they’d put in the middle of the bathroom. He started to lean his head back, but when the room started spinning, he leaned forward instead.

“Waitaminute, Kotetsu.”

“Huh?”

Antonio squinted at the box. “The instructions say t’ take off your shirt. The color’ll ruin it.”

“Right. Of course.” Kotetsu pulled his shirt off, briefly getting tangled in the fabric. “Wait. Wait. I think I need some water.” He rose – standing up was always this difficult, right? – and staggered to the sink. With shaking hands, he filled the cup he kept by the sink. It spilled down his front as he gulped it down, soaking his chest. “Whoopsie-daisy,” he muttered, and began to search for a washcloth to dry himself off. He reached out to the cabinet over the sink (the most logical place for washcloths, of course), and caught sight of himself in the mirror. He paused to study his reflection: the hated grey hairs threading through his black hair; the ever-deepening creases around his eyes and, recently, his mouth; the wedding band from his marriage to Tomoe hanging from a chain around his neck; and the burn scar that covered most of the right side of his torso. His guts clenched with sudden doubt.

“Kotetsu! Let’s goooooooo!” Antonio had stripped his own shirt off, but to Kotetsu’s hazy mind, that seemed perfectly natural.

“Right, right!” Kotetsu slumped back into the chair.

Antonio studied the instructions for a few seconds longer, then said, “Okay, I got this buddy.” He clapped Kotetsu’s shoulder a bit too hard. Kotetsu winced – his friend always seemed to forget about his super-strength when he was drunk.

Kotetsu leaned forward, listening to Antonio stumbled and cursing behind him. His stomach churned.

Then he heard the door creak open. “What’s going on in here? It’s three in the morning.”

Kotetsu turned around. There stood Barnaby, shirtless and in his pajama pants, glasses askew, curls the slightest bit rumpled.  The churning in his stomach grew even more agitated. “Bunny! It’s not what it looks like!”

“I told you not to call me that,” Barnaby replied automatically. “And it looks like – “

Before he could finish his thought, Kotetsu’s stomach decided it had finally had enough and rebelled, spewing vomit all over the bathroom floor.

\---

The first thing Kotetsu noticed when he woke up the next morning was that everything hurt. He opened one bleary eye, but the light hurt too, so he snapped it back shut. He groaned, mostly to see what reaction he’d get. When there was no response, he groaned again, louder.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Barnaby’s voice said. The mattress shifted from the weight of someone sitting on it, and two small round pills pressed into his palm. “Take this,” the voice commanded.

Kotetsu eased himself upright, wincing the whole time. He accepted the glass of water held in front of him, and washed down the pills.

“I’m never drinking again,” he moaned. His memories of the night before were fuzzy and incomplete.

“I’ve heard that one before,” Barnaby said dryly. “Although it would be nice if you meant it. I’m tired of cleaning up when you forget your limit.”

The previous night’s events began to trickle back into his memory. “Oh no,” he groaned. “Wait, Antonio!”

“He’s asleep on the couch. Judging from how he was at least as drunk as you, but didn’t throw up, he’s probably even worse off than you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed there all day.”

Kotetsu sagged back down. “Thanks, Barnaby,” he mumbled. He wanted to go back to sleep, to stay unconscious until the pills took effect. But Barnaby wasn’t done yet.

“We’re lucky I came in before the dye stained everything in the bathroom, or we’d have to pay to have it all redone. Some of it was only a centimeter away from your wedding band.” He ran his fingers through Kotetsu’s hair. “You should have told me if you were that worried about it. I could have made an appointment with the colorist at my salon months ago.”

“Mmmph.” Kotetsu hooked his arm around Barnaby’s waist, pulling him down onto the bed. “It’s not about that, really.” He sighed and shifted in the bed. “I’m just worried about how every day, there seems to be a new reminder of how I’m getting older and older, and you’re still living the life I used to have. First grey hair, then that arrogant prick… What do you mean months ago?”

Barnaby chuckled. “Yeah, I first noticed in February sometime. You didn’t?”

Kotetsu pressed his hands over his eyes and tried to sink deeper into the pillows. “Noooooooo…” But he smiled and reached out to wrap his finger in one silken honey-blond curl. “Wait, Barnaby. I think I see…”

Barnaby propped himself up on his elbow, his brow furrowed. “See what?”

Kotetsu gave Barnaby his best shit-eating grin. “A white streak.”

“You’re lying,” Barnaby said as he pulled away. He added, “I’m going to the bathroom,” and walked away a little too quickly.

Kotetsu called back, “Maybe you should make an appointment for both of us together. It’ll be romantic!”

“Shut up!” Barnaby snapped from down the hall, making Kotetsu laugh to himself before he sank back down into the pillows.


End file.
